The headline this week is the Community Improvement Plan (CIP). A CIP is a municipal tool that lets a township set rules and offer incentives for local improvements. In North Frontenac’s case, the CIP has been deliberately structured as township-wide. It applies across the whole municipality, not just one settlement hamlet or road, this is a sensible fit for a large rural township where businesses and projects are spread out.
There are two ways a small township can react when outside money dries up. It can quietly let a program die and move on. Or it can take ownership, shrink the scope to what it can afford, and keep building anyway.
The original North Frontenac CIP included a defined budget from the County of Frontenac. That budget was finite. The plan itself also anticipated an endpoint: a review after five years or when funds were exhausted. That moment has arrived. This is good news though. It is easier to scrap a program when outside funding dries up. It takes more backbone to keep the concept alive and rebuild it at the township level. North Frontenac choosing to keep a CIP conversation going is a small but real expression of local independence. It signals a preference for building local capacity rather than waiting for a larger government to decide what gets supported here. This is a welcome information coupled with the townships reduction in permit fees and shows progress people can notice in their lives.
The Community Improvement Plan’s original budget was roughly $70,000, and once those funds were exhausted the program was always going to hit a wall. Now the Township is proposing its own CIP. The budget is smaller, about $15,000 by current discussion, but the point is bigger than the number. Council nearly cut it during fall budget deliberations. It stayed alive only after a tied vote, with Mayor Gerry Lichty breaking the tie to keep it running. That is a small-town moment that actually means something. It is a choice to keep investing in our own places, using our own money, on our own terms.
How Recipients Are Chosen
How recipients are chosen is the right topic, and it is already being debated publicly on the townships official facebook page. One resident, Brandon E. Hartwig, raised the concern that a pure first-come, first-served approach is the easiest administrative path, but not always the fairest outcome. That is how the old CIP described its funding approach and why we need to be careful not to spread false information as a township.
The new CIP presentation describes the Township moving away from a casual, informal approach and toward a scoring system. The draft describes a scoring matrix that weights Township priorities, includes the option of a minimum passing score, and anticipates staff doing the scoring with an information report back to Council. That is governance. It is also the kind of structure that can answer the fairness question without turning the program into a political popularity contest.
The public discussion on the CIP update is scheduled for Friday, February 27. It is being presented as an open house format, with a brief presentation during the window. Keeping the CIP in-house with our local staff and council puts the program back where it belongs: in public view, with a chance for business owners, property owners, and residents to speak to what they think is working and what is not.
Housing Advisory Task Force Momentum
At the same time, the Housing Advisory Task Force is heating up, and it deserves recognition for the tone and substance that is starting to show. In the last meeting, JP Melville delivered what can only be described as an information dump in the best sense of the word. It was focused, enthusiastic, and rooted in real-world constraints. He also invited an Abbeyfield House director to speak candidly about the challenges of affordable senior development and the long grind it can become. That kind of grounded input is rare. It was not a sales pitch. It was education, and it was appreciated.
There are now multiple affordable housing project ideas being floated around the community. They are still early. They are still forming. But the direction is clear. The task force is beginning to behave like a serious working group, not a ceremonial committee.
A Pattern of Independence
Put these two task forces side by side and the pattern is encouraging. EDTF is trying to keep local reinvestment alive with a Township-run CIP, even after outside funding disappeared. HATF is starting to produce sharper thinking and better information, with residents and guests bringing substance to the table.
This is what independence looks like in a place like North Frontenac. It is not loud. It is not glamorous. It is people taking smaller tools and using them anyway, because the alternative is waiting for someone else to decide what our community gets.
NFNM will be releasing a special report in the coming weeks on a proposed idea currently being floated in the wider affordable housing conversation focusing on Plevna.
A follow up on CIP will come after the draft is presented to council in March.
